11 Classic 90s Trends that Everyone is Wearing in 2025

For those of us old enough to remember ’90s fashion the first time around, we have mixed feelings about the return of some classic ’90s trends. After all, the same decade that made style icons of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and minimalistic style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy also gave us handkerchief hemlines, platform trainers and copious amounts of body glitter.
If you too spent most of the 1990s in denim skirts and plastic chokers, you may be reading this with trepidation. Before you panic, it’s not the gaudy wide-leg jeans or cargo maxi skirts that are coming back into fashion. For every fashion faux pas from the period, there are more than enough classic 90s trends that cover past mistakes and surprisingly still look good today—and the style set is already ahead of the curve.
(Image credit: Getty Images (Photo by Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty Images))
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy is a perpetual fashion icon, with her streamlined look and decisively minimal sense of style still a source of inspiration for many today.
Case in point: Anouk Yve updating one of her many ’90s New York street-style looks with contemporary pieces.
Gen Z’s discovery of the very best fashion the late 20th and early 21st Century had to offer has ensured key ’90s pieces are garnering our attention once again. Think of styles associated with the office siren trend or old money aesthetic. They might inherently feel more suited to today thanks to labels like Mode Mischief and Peachy Den putting a modern twist on these timeless shapes, but garments like white button-down shirts, sleek pencil skirts and slip dresses are actually ’90s fashion staples.
Don’t believe us? After scrolling through socials and digging deep into the feeds of trendsetters and tastemakers, I began to spot plenty of trends that grew in popularity nearly 30 years ago, but still look fresh today. (And if you’ve bought any straight-leg jeans, Adidas trainers, or tank tops in the last 12 months, you can count yourselves among the insiders.)
So, should you be looking for new It-items ahead of a seasonal refresh, looking for easy ’90s outfits to replicate or just a sucker for nostalgia, keep scrolling to see the 11 classic ’90s trends that everyone has been wearing again in 2025.
11 Classic 90s Fashion Trends That Will Always Be In Style
1. Minimalist Basics
Style Notes: First to ease you in gently, a nod to the minimalism that defined the early 90s, in the form of versatile basics. The runways showed Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang’s take on stripped-back staples, and on the streets, we stocked up on tank tops, fitted tees and maxi skirts (usually accompanied by a denim jacket). Thankfully, this refined approach doesn’t age, and the same key pieces form the foundations of our capsule wardrobes in 2025, particularly in the same neutral colour palette of white, black, grey and camel.
Shop the Trend:
ARKET
Rib Tank Top – White – Women – Arket Gb
This looks good with just about anything.
Reformation
Dusk Knit Top
From Julia Roberts’ Golden Globes suit from 1990 to Kate Moss on Isaac Mizrahi’s runway in 1994, grey is the decade’s biggest colour trend.
COS
Clean Cut Regular T-Shirt
2. Straight Leg Jeans
Style Notes: There have been so many denim trends and jean styles released over the last year that its almost impossible to keep up. Are we wearing low-slung baggy jeans? Have skinny jeans really made a comeback? Are barrel, horseshoe and arch jeans the future or fundamentally unflattering?
Instead of trying to guess the next big thing, we’re happy staying to the classic that everyone knows and loves—the straight leg. Not only does it work for every size and shape, but you’re unlikely to look back at pictures in 20 years and wonder what you were thinking.
Shop the Trend:
Reformation
Val 90s Mid Rise Straight Jeans
It’s easy to see why Reformation are adored for their denim.
M&S Collection
Sienna Straight Leg Jeans
AGOLDE
Valen Mid-Rise Straight-Leg Jeans
HUSH
Hush Agnes Straight Leg Jeans
Just look at that fit—and available in so many sizes, too!
3. Pedal Pushers
Style Notes: After cargo pants made a comeback in 2023, it was only a matter of time before the other most divisive trouser would be set to return too. Whether you call them capri pants or pedal pushers, the three-quarter crop is suddenly everywhere again. Once it’s made its way onto the high street, you know you’ve got a commercially successful trend on your hands. Could the pedal pusher be the trouser trend of 2025? With endorsements from Bella Hadid, there’s a strong possibility.
Shop the Trend:
PEACHY DEN
Slim-Fit Cindy Capri Woven Leggings
FAITHFULL
Capri Cropped Linen Slim-Leg Pants
RÓHE
Capri Cropped Recycled Scuba Leggings
This styling makes pedal pushers feel bang up to date.
4. Biker Boots
Style Notes: Fashion people are so besotted by grunge-inspired biker boots that they wore them through the summer months, too. It was Miu Miu who kickstarted the revival back in A/W 22 with the Sienna boot, and it has steadily garnered popularity ever since. With just a quick stroll on Instagram, you’re bound to see biker boots styled with everything from mini skirts to baggy jeans—or given the classic ’90s fashion treatment with a floral slip dress à la Marc Jacobs’s grunge S/S 93 collection for Perry Ellis.
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This suede boot is such a nice alternative to leather.
& Other Stories
Leather Biker Boots
Sandro Paris
Leather Biker Boots
I’m really into calf-grazing versions.
PARIS TEXAS
Roxy Studded Leather Ankle Boots
Add some real edge to your outfit.
5. Baguette Bags
Style Notes: Ever since Carrie Bradshaw uttered the immortal words “It’s not a bag, it’s a baguette”, fashion insiders have been infatuated with the idea of the dream mini bag that nestles perfectly under the arm when worn on the shoulder. Fendi has certainly made this a reality, but there’s so much more to this style than just their lust-worthy iteration. XXL totes and teeny top handle bags may come and go, but a bag the right size to carry your essentials is forever, especially when it carries the logo of the most sought-after names in fashion. Not bad for this small but mighty designer bag.
Shop the Trend:
Fendi
Green Selleria Bag With 612 Hand-Sewn Topstitches
JACQUEMUS
The Bisou Perle Embellished Leather Shoulder Bag
How cute are the added resin spheres!
So sleek, so sophisticated.
Fendi
Baguettelight Blue Selleria Bag With 612 Hand-Sewn Topstitches
Blue and silver look so good together.
6. Slip Dresses
Style Notes: Slip dresses have stood the test of time and solidified themselves as true wardrobe staples for their sheer versatility alone. While the “trendiness” of slip dresses ebbs and flows like the fashion cycle itself, there isn’t a more on-trend piece than the elevated basic that is front and centre in the recent collections of Bevza, Celine and Gucci. Looking for new ways to wear this simple dress? Simply browse the street style offerings of slip dress icons like Courtney Love, Kate Moss, and more recently, Olivia Rodrigo.
Shop the Trend:
ST. AGNI
Printed Satin Midi Dress
A celebrity-approved wardrobe staple.
NILI LOTAN
Cami Silk-Satin Gown
If you wear under a tailored trench coat, this piece is perfect for all of your evening plans.
Ghost
Palm Satin Midi Slip Dress
COS
Bias-Cut Maxi Slip Dress
So suitable for everyday.
7. Mules
Style Notes: Want something dressier than a biker boot? Look no further than a grown-up mule. These slip-on shoes are perfect for transeasonal event wear—not that you have to save them for formal occasions. While 30 years ago we might have been tempted to style these with jeans and a matching denim jacket, right now we’re copying this elegant take on everyday dressing. Take notes from this sleek monochromatic colour-blocked look.
Shop the Trend:
MANOLO BLAHNIK
Maysale 50 Buckled Suede Mules
Reformation
Melly Flat Mule
This dark cherry colour is so delicious! I love this for everyday wear.
M&S Collection
Suede Slip on Flat Ballet Pumps
These look three times their price.
ZARA
Velvet-Effect Heeled Mules
A pretty pair that work just as well as your wedding guest shoe as they do on a luxe European holiday.
8. Tracksuit Bottoms
Style Notes: The Spice Girls, All Saints, TLC, all the greats wore tracksuit bottoms at one stage, and if you’re getting bored of wearing the same jeans on rotation, track pants are just as easy to style up too. Wear with a blazer, or oversized leather jacket, or longline coat—heck, you can even wear them with heeled mules and cami tops if you want to make them evening-appropriate too. It’s almost criminal that a trouser this comfy can look so good.
Shop the Trend:
ADIDAS X WALES BONNER
Logo Jersey Track Pants
Just when we couldn’t love Wales Bonner x Adidas enough, here they come with a pair of classic pants made from recycled fabric.
With Jéan
Romeo Track Pant
We can see this easily blending into any of the Spice Girls’s wardrobes.
SPORTY & RICH
Vendome Two-Slip-Pockets Straight-Leg High-Rise Cotton-Jersey Jogging Bottoms
Mode Mischief Studios
Essential Tracks
BRB, just copying this entire fit.
9. Tights
Style Notes: Be it under the pencil skirts of Cindy Crawford or the flirty minis worn by Kate Moss, tights were universal in the 90s. Irrespective of the subculture you adhered to, tights could be relied on to elevate a simple silhouette with a touch of elegance or edge—depending on your fashion philosophy, of course. For a more alternative take, style them under denim shorts like a young Drew Barrymore, or reach for a bold print like perennial style icon and risk taker Chloë Sevigny did for a film premiere in 1996.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Shop the Trend:
H&M
Sheertex® Ultra-Strong Sheer Tights
The perfect amount of stretch and hold.
Autograph
2pk 10 Denier Ladder Resist Seamless Tights
Charnos
Charnos 30 Denier Sheer Tights, Black
Swedish Stockings
Zadie Zebra Tights
10. Leopard Print
Style Notes: Wild cat prints strutted into the ’90s right at the turn of the decade as the Titan of Tight, Azzedine Alaïa, dedicated his Fall/Winter 1991 runway collection to leopard print silhouettes. Swiftly picked up on the red carpet by Cameron Diaz and by Princess Diana for her vacation wardrobe, 90s and leopard print are synonymous. “I absolutely adore leopard print and truly feel it’s a wardrobe neutral, not a trend,” says Who What Wear SEO Writer, Ava Gilchrist.
Shop the Trend:
REFORMATION
Aliceyn Leopard-Print Silk Top
Identical to the top Christina Aguilera wore to the MTV Music Awards in 1999.
M&S Collection
Leather Leopard Print Flat Boat Shoes
These bring such a spark of joy to any monochromatic look.
& Other Stories
Leopard-Print Leather Tote Bag
11. Polka Dots
(Image credit: @dianekari)
Style Notes: After Princess Diana popularised polka dots in the ’80s, the soft print continued speckling up in the ’90s. In 2025, the polka dot trend has dominated the zeitgeist once again, but we’ll always associate it with Julia Roberts’s iconic wardrobe from 1990’s Pretty Woman and Valentino’s Spring/Summer 1993 collection.
Shop the Trend:
This dress demands to be taken out for lunch.
Sister Jane
Dream Shoreline Jacquard Ruffle Cape
This cape has gone to the top of my wishlist. I’ll be throwing it on over jeans to live out my Valentino runway fantasy.
GANNI
Polka-Dot Mini Ganni Bou Bag
Such a sweet way to bring in the trend.
ZARA
Polka Dot Print Dress
This navy hue is perfect for a coastal escape.
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